The use of animal cages or crates is well known. Many conventional cages have been developed over the years for housing animals of different shapes and sizes. For instance, animal cages typically house dogs and cats. Rabbits, rodents and other small animals have also been known to be housed by such cages and are quite common. In fact, such cages are also used for farm animals when needed, including ducks and chickens. As cages have been further developed, the portability and ease of use have become points of emphasis. Some conventional cages, for example, have been designed to collapse to a compact structure for portability. Others have been designed to be of light weight and from durable materials. Conventional cages have been designed for ease of transporting an animal. Some conventional cages are designed as exercise pens that provide an interior space that the animal can move about, particularly outdoors.
Most conventional cages include at least one door for providing access to the interior of the cage. The animal enters or exits the cage through an opening when the door is opened, and the animal can be safely contained in the cage when the door is closed. Many conventional cages include a door that is attached to the cage with a hinge. In some conventional cages, the doors swing from a side of the cage and in others the door swings from the bottom or top of the cage. This allows the door to be swung from a closed position to an open and vice versa. In cages with side or top swinging doors, the animal can walk into the cage. In cages with bottom swinging doors, the animal is typically placed into and removed from the cage by the owner. A variety of latches have been incorporated into the design of the door to allow a user to open, close, and or securely latch the door.
Many of these conventional designs have limitations, however. With regards to an exercise pen, for example, the door is generally formed by an entire height and width of a panel or side member of the pen. Many of these doors are not able to be securely latched or may not prevent an animal from escaping the enclosure. In addition, due to the size of the door, it can be difficult for an owner to reach into the interior of the exercise pen and retrieve a desired animal when two or more animals are enclosed therein.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved animal enclosure that provides better means for accessing the interior of the enclosure which overcomes some of the above-mentioned limitations in the prior art.